SAY KIDS, WHAT TIME IS IT?

IT'S HOWDY DOODY TIME!

New York City (JFK+50) Seventy years ago, December 27, 1947, the "Howdy Doody" television show premiered on the National Broadcasting Company from Studio 3A at Rockefeller Center here in New York City.

The show featured a wooden puppet named "Howdy Doody" and was hosted by Buffalo Bob Smith* along with a clown named Clarabell. The set for the program included bleachers which could hold up to 40 screaming kids.  It was called "The Peanut Gallery".

Buffalo Bob, dressed in a cowboy outfit, opened each show by asking...

"Say kids, what time is it?"  And, in unison, they would answer...

"It's Howdy Doody time!"

Then came the show's signature theme song:  "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay"**

"It's Howdy Doody time

It's Howdy Doody time

Bob Smith and Howdy too

Say howdy-do to you.

Let's give a rousing cheer

Cause Howdy Doody time is here

It's time to start the show

So kids let's go!"

The signature TV program of the "Baby Boom" generation was telecast in black and white until 1954 and then became one of the first programs to be broadcast in "living color."  Bob Smith created the Howdy Doody character during his radio days at WNBC and Frank Paris created the first puppet for TV, a little boy in a cowboy suit with 48 freckles on his face, one for each state in the union.

*Robert Emil Schmidt, aka Buffalo Bob Smith (1917-1998) was born in, where else, Buffalo, New York.  He began his broadcasting career in radio at WGR and then was hired by WNBC in New York City.  In addition to the Howdy Doody Show, Smith hosted the Gulf Road Show on NBC-TV during the 1948-49 season.

**"Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay" was 1st performed in Henry J. Sayer's revue "Tuxedo" in Boston in 1891.

SOURCE

"It's Howdy Doody Time", www.lyrster.com

Buffalo Bob & Howdy

Photo by Roy Erickson

State Library & Archives of Florida

Ft. Lauderdale

Howdy Checking Out His New Look

January 1949

NBC Photo